U.S.S. Seawolf - Hardcover

Robinson, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060196300 ISBN 13: 9780060196301

Publisher: Harper, 2000

Synopsis

By the close of the twentieth century, China had gathered secret information concerning the United States' underwater surveillance and guided-missile technology. How much the sensitive knowledge would impact China's military capabilities was unknown.

Until 2005. The technology is in production in China's new breed of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine sonars, and satellite deep-sea observation systems. The Pentagon and the White House are alarmed. The dragon has stirred.

At the forefront of the new technology is China's new ICBM submarine, Xia III, which may have the capacity to hurl a nuclear warhead clear across the Pacific Ocean and take out an American West Coast city. Beijing has made such threats before, but this time, with the new American technology, they cannot be so easily dismissed.

And Admiral Arnold Morgan, the President's National Security Adviser, isn't going to sit back and wait for it to happen. He dispatches the most lethal hunter-killer submarine in the U.S. fleet, the 9,000-ton ultrasecret Seawolf, deep into the dark, forbidden waters of the China Sea.

The mission bristles with peril, as the Americans prowl through China's territorial waters, listening, photographing, led by the brilliant stealth and cunning of Captain Judd Crocker. Under his steady hand they are able to elude the People's Liberation Navy until, without warning, the most shocking accident occurs due south of Canton. Seawolf is suddenly, catastrophically at the mercy of the Chinese, her crew captive, the $1 billion ship in enemy hands. And if the true identity of Seowolf's executive officer becomes known, the repercussions will cause the biggest confrontation between Beijing and Washington in more than forty years.

Left with few options, Admiral Morgan, at the risk of starting World War III, orders SPECWARCOM to send in the Navy SEALs to rescue the Americans at all costs. It is the biggest Special Forces assault force assembled since the Vietnam War. Their orders as they embark on their journey to a remote Chinese island are brutally straightforward: failure is not an option. Success is paramount for the Pentagon, the Navy, the President, and the United States. Defeat, or even discovery, is unthinkable.

Featuring an ensemble cast that stretches from the very heart of the Chinese High Command to the control rooms of U.S. submarines and the screaming flight decks of giant U.S. aircraft carriers, U.S.S. Seawolf is epic in its sweep, meticulous in its authenticity, and breathtaking in its pacing. It is a terrifying and thrilling novel for our times.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Robinson is the author of seven international bestselling suspense thrillers, including Nimitz Class and Hunter Killer, as well as several nonfiction bestsellers. He divides his time between Ireland and Cape Cod.

From Publishers Weekly

Robinson's gripping followup to HMS Unseen pits bellowing National Security Advisor Arnold Morgan against an increasingly brazen People's Republic of China, which has been flexing its military muscle by shooting missiles over Taiwan and threatening a nuclear strike on Los Angeles. In response to this last threat, stalwart Capt. Judd Crocker of the submarine Seawolf is sent on a secret mission to assess the nuclear strike capability of China's new Xia-class sub. When nervous executive officer Linus Clarke inadvertently cripples the Seawolf, the crew is taken prisoner, and the submarine falls into the hands of Chinese Admiral Zhang Yushu, who hides behind diplomacy while using torture and physical abuse to ferret out the Seawolf's secrets. What Zhang doesn't know is that one of the submariners is even more valuable than the sub itselfAa fact that sends Admiral Morgan into a desperate race against time to destroy the Seawolf before its secrets can be revealed, and to effect a seemingly impossible rescue. As usual, Robinson makes the impossible look easy and ratchets the tension higher and higher, until at last a team of SEALS assaults the prison where the Seawolf's crew is housed. But that's not the end of the story. In the novel's final few pages, several well-planted political hints blossom into a series of plot explosions. Given their potential importance to both the story and the life of Robinson's hero, Arnold Morgan, these developments are jarringly abrupt. While this finale is devastating, it feels rushed compared to the rest of this well-paced naval techno-thriller.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0060196300
• ISBN 13: 9780060196301
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448